


The Final Word Was Love

by voodoochild



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Backstory, Comment Fic, F/M, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-08
Updated: 2011-01-08
Packaged: 2017-10-14 13:30:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/149692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/voodoochild/pseuds/voodoochild
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Regrets are hard. Goodbyes are harder. Sally Jackson refuses to dwell on either, because love is better.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Final Word Was Love

**Author's Note:**

> Written for comment_fic, for the prompt _"The weight of water, the way you told me to look past everything I ever learned"_. Title and prompt lyrics from Snow Patrol's "Make This Go On Forever".

_All the myths are true_ , he'd said, the night they first met on that beach in Montauk. _The competition for Athens with my sister. The rapes of Caeneus and Medusa. My hatred for Odysseus. Earthquakes and typhoons and hurricanes. Scylla and Charybdis._

 _Why are you telling me this?_ , she'd replied.

He leaned closer to her, and it's not just his godhood, the spark in his eyes, that draws her in. It's the almost-human twist to his mouth, the callouses on his fingers as he grips her hands in his. _Because honesty does not come easy to my kind. We deal in riddles and rumors, not truth. But you, Sally - you deserve truth. You deserve so much more than I can ever give you._

She's an orphan from Queens, who used to live with a sick uncle and now doesn't really have a home at all. She's crashing at a beach house that just happens to be empty this week, she has precisely fifty-six dollars to her name, and she's barely past twenty-one. She's caught the eye of an actual god mostly due to an ability she didn't know she had. She doesn't have a clue what she's really worth.

You can understand just how easy it was to fall for him.

It was hopelessly cliche, and they'd known it would have to end in tears, but it had been worth it. Because Sally doesn't regret a single day of that summer. The memory of eyes as green as the sea, shoulders broad and sheltering, tears like rainwater when she told him she was pregnant - they keep her strong in her resolve to protect herself and her son. They carry her through twelve years of looking over her shoulder and seven years with Gabe Ugliano. Every time Gabe had raised a hand to her (in lust, in anger, and sometimes she couldn't tell the difference), all it took was the glimpse of an ocean, the summer wind off Culloden Point, to remind her that once, she'd been loved.

When her son reaches his teenage years, she begins to see his father in him. The line of Percy's jaw, his bright smile, the sudden flush of anger - they're every bit of what she remembers of Poseidon. But his eyes mirror hers, bright and blue like Long Island Sound. Through the battles with monsters and Titans alike, what gives her comfort is that her son is stronger than both his parents, human and divine.

The night of Percy's fifteenth birthday, she's already been flustered enough when Paul proposes to her, but then there's a knock on the door of her tiny apartment and Poseidon - Hawaiian shirt and all - smiles at her from the landing. Paul isn't pleased when Poseidon asks to speak with first Percy, then her, but Paul is honest and sweet and completely, utterly normal, and she loves him for it.

So she climbs out onto the fire escape with Poseidon (which is so incongruous, but yet it feels like they've been doing silly things like this all her life) and watches the night breeze ruffle his hair.

 _Is this a goodbye?_ , she asks. _You wouldn't be here unless the world was coming to an end._

He shakes his head. _It's a goodbye for now. War has broken out, and I will not have Percy any further involved than he's already going to be._

 _I know better than to ask, but will you be all right?_ she says, laying a hand on his shoulder and feeling the old warmth return between them.

 _Only you would think to ask,_ he says. His hand briefly raises to brush through her hair and then over her lips. _Only for you would I confess that no, I will not be all right. But I refuse to lie down and allow Oceanus to overthrow me. So I will fight, no matter the cost._

Impulsively, she winds her arms around his waist, and kisses him. It's soft and slow, the easy roll of the tide against the shore, and it's goodbye.

 _I love you._

He looks back at the apartment, at the shadows of Tyson and Percy and Paul eating birthday cake, and he gently pulls away.

 _I am honored by that love. You always have, and always will have mine, but you deserve more. Paul is more than worthy of you, my beloved. Let him make you as happy as you should be._

She cannot deny him that wish. While she does witness the battle and the aftermath and the rebuilding of Olympus, she also lets herself love Paul as much as she loved Poseidon.

She deserves it.


End file.
